Monday, February 2, 1998Last modified at 12:29 a.m. on Monday, February 2, 1998

Saudis pose challenge in building support against Iraq

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - America's closest ally in the Persian Gulf - Saudi Arabia - also could be its toughest challenge in building support for a military attack on Iraq.

Saudi resistance, spelled out in comments Sunday by a senior Saudi official, complicates U.S. efforts to get full cooperation from countries in the region at a time when Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was arriving to consult on the stand-off between the United Nations and Iraq.

"Saudi Arabia will not allow any strikes against Iraq, under any circumstances, from its soil or bases in Saudi Arabia, due to the sensitivity of the issue in the Arab and Muslim world," the Saudi official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Even U.N. Security Council approval of an attack would not change the Saudi position, the official said.

The United States has plenty of fighter jets and troops afloat in the Persian Gulf, but it relied heavily on Saudi and Turkish bases during the 1991 Gulf War.

These days, Turkey, too, is reluctant to allow itself to be used as a launching pad. Ankara announced Sunday it would send Foreign Minister Ismail Cem to Baghdad to help negotiate a diplomatic end to the standoff over U.N. weapons inspections.

Iraq has been sparring with U.N. inspectors and the United States over access to suspected weapons sites, and U.S. calls for military strikes have been getting louder in recent weeks.

Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday that he has received commitments from two countries to publicly support the United States should it decide to attack Iraq.

"The United States will not be alone," Richardson said during a world forum in Davos, Switzerland. He refused to identify the countries.

The U.N. inspectors must certify Iraq has destroyed all of its weapons of mass destruction before the U.N. Security Council will lift tough economic sanctions imposed after Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait in 1990, prompting the Gulf War. The Security Council insists on unfettered access for its inspectors; Iraq contends access to some sites, including presidential palaces, would violate its sovereignty.

Albright was to begin explaining the U.S. position Sunday night with talks with the emir of Kuwait, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah. She was to consult Monday with leaders of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, then fly Tuesday to Egypt.

The United States has more than 4,000 troops and dozens of warplanes at bases in Saudi Arabia. Saudis, however, have been increasingly uncomfortable about their close ties with Washington since the June 1996 bombing of a U.S. military barracks in eastern Saudi Arabia. Nineteen American servicemen died in the attack, blamed on Muslim extremists.

U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia and Turkey were used extensively during the Gulf War, when an American-led coalition drove Iraq out of Kuwait. But the last U.S. missile strike against Iraq - a 1996 attack to punish President Saddam Hussein for sending troops into a Kurdish "safe haven" in northern Iraq - was launched from U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.

Today, the United States has more than 24,400 troops aboard two aircraft carriers, the USS George Washington and the USS Nimitz, and their escort ships in the gulf. About half of the 342 warplanes in the gulf also are seabased.